Reasons Why NSFAS Reversed Your Funding

The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) funds disadvantaged South African students who want to pursue tertiary studies at a public university or TVET College around the country. 

NSFAS provides funding for registration, tuition fees, accommodation as well as various allowances. These allowances cover learning materials, transport and other living expenses. 

Some students have found that NSFAS reversed their funding and there are many reasons for this. 

When students apply for NSFAS, they must make sure that they meet the requirements in order to qualify for the tertiary funding because if the bursary scheme finds that they do not qualify, then their funding will be reversed. 

NSFAS could reverse the funding if they evaluated your information with third parties such as the South African Revenue Services (SARS) and Department of Home Affairs and find that you don't meet the criteria of a household income of R350 000 per year. 

NSFAS reserves the right to withdraw or cease financial aid to a student under the following circumstances:

1. You no longer meet the financial or academic eligibility as set out in this policy standard
2. You have been found to have defrauded NSFAS or another NSFAS beneficiary
3. You were awarded financial aid in error; or incorrect information was submitted by the institution, leading to the student being funded erroneously
4. Incorrect or false information was submitted by the student when requested to do so
5. Dual registration records have been received from different institutions for the same student and the dual registration remains unresolved.  
6. You failed to meet the NSFAS academic eligibility criteria for continuing students.
7. NSFAS has reviewed your financial eligibility and noted that your household income has changed to be beyond the permitted thresholds, even after taking inflationary adjustments into account. 
8. A report of fraud has been reported against you, and NSFAS has confirmed that you have misrepresented information provided during your application. 
9. NSFAS has discovered that you have already obtained an undergraduate qualification which was not known to NSFAS at the time of assessing your application.  

NSFAS also checks if students meet the N+ rule in order to determine whether they should continue funding their studies. Currently, the N+1 rule is in place which means that students only have N+1 years to finish a degree. If students exceed this amount of years when completing their qualification NSFAS may reverse their funding. 

You must meet the following criteria to avoid having NSFAS reverse your funding: 

1. Be a South African citizen

2. Have a combined household income of not more than R350 000 per annum

3. Person with disability: Combined household income must not be more than R600 000 per annum

4. Students who started studying before 2018 must have a household income of not more than R122 000 per annum.

5. Students who have already applied, qualified and receive funding must continue to pass their modules and meet the academic requirements. 

It is important that applicants complete their NSFAS application with the correct information as the bursary scheme will take action should they find that students intentionally misstated or left out information during the application process.